Micro plastic are a concern in oceans and other aquatic habitats, and now, possibly in the air. Photo credit: 5Gyres

The Guardian reported that a research team at King’s College in London is looking into the issue.

“There is a possibility, a real possibility, that some of those microparticles will be entrained into the air, and they will be carried around and we will end up breathing them,” said Frank Kelly, a researcher and professor of environmental health at King’s College, at an evidence session at the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) in the UK.

According to The Guardian, Kelly said the microplastics could enter the air after sewage sludge is spread on fields and dries out. He also cited a French study that had detected the particles in the air.

“This is a horizon-scanning issue but the particles are of a size that they are [breathable], they are increasing in number in our environment and there is a question to be asked,” Kelly added.

Microplastics, or microbeads, are plastic particles with an upper size limit of 5 mm and are found in facial cleansers, toothpastes or disintegrate from larger pieces of plastic or synthetic clothing. These pieces are often too small to be filtered by sewage treatment plants so they get released into bodies of water where they are accidentally consumed by fish, birds or sea mammals.

The tiny plastic is being eaten by zooplankton, the foundation of the marine food system, meaning it eventually makes it all the way up the ocean food chain. Because humans eat fish and other seafood it can end up in our bodies as well.

“[Microplastics] have the potential to cause physical and chemical harm, as demonstrated by laboratory studies," Kelly and his colleague Dr. Stephanie Wright said in a written statement. "They now present a human health risk, mainly due to their occurrence in dietary sources."

Plastics are known to leach potentially harmful chemicals that could interfere with human hormones. Kelly also noted that the health effects of microplastics are only just being looked at.

“If we breathe them in they could potentially deliver chemicals to the lower parts of our lungs and maybe even across into our circulation, in the same way as we worry about all the other vehicle-related emissions,” he warned.

The UK's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs submitted evidence to the EAC that stated, "even for high level consumers of seafoods that are most likely to be relatively highly contaminated with marine microplastics, dietary exposure to microplastic particles is likely to be relatively low compared with inhalation of microplastics."

The Independent reported that some EAC members were taken aback by the news that people might be inhaling plastic particles:

“This sounds like a very serious issue,” [committee member Rebecca Pow] said as some MPs appeared startled by the news, “we’re not laughing about it, we’re laughing hysterically.”

Dr. Erik van Sebille, of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, told the EAC that plastic was a “fantastic material and we really wouldn’t want a society without plastic any more,” but added that plastic waste should be reduced to slow its “leakage” into the natural environment.

Dr. van Sebille said that ingested plastic has been found to make up 10 percent of the weight of seabirds.

“We don’t know how harmful this plastic is, but it is likely that just the weight burden on the bird flying around with so much plastic in their stomach is going to have an energy demand on the bird,” he said.

According to the Evening Standard, the Kings College research team said that air quality monitoring methods were being adapted to detect microplastics.

“If we find evidence that indicates microplastics can become airborne we plan to implement monitoring campaigns providing information on exposure levels via inhalation,” they said.

Microbeads are yet to be banned in the U.K. even though two-thirds of the British public think they should be.

Over on our shores, President Obama signed a bill in December that will phase out the manufacturing of products containing microbeads by July 1, 2017, and the sale of such beauty products by July 1, 2018.

The beauty products we put on our skin can have important consequences for our health. Just this March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that some Claire's cosmetics had tested positive for asbestos. But the FDA could only issue a warning, not a recall, because current law does not empower the agency to do so.

We know that people power can stop dangerous fossil fuel projects like the proposed Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline in Minnesota, because we've proved it over and over again — and recently we've had two more big wins.

Scientists released a study showing that a million species are at risk for extinction, but it was largely ignored by the corporate news media. Danny Perez Photography / Flickr / CC

By Julia Conley

Scientists at the United Nations' intergovernmental body focusing on biodiversity sounded alarms earlier this month with its report on the looming potential extinction of one million species — but few heard their calls, according to a German newspaper report.

The climate crisis is a major concern for American voters with nearly 40 percent reporting the issue will help determine how they cast their ballots in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, according to a report compiled by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Of more than 1,000 registered voters surveyed on global warming, climate and energy policies, as well as personal and collective action, 38 percent said that a candidate's position on climate change is "very important" when it comes to determining who will win their vote. Overall, democratic candidates are under more pressure to provide green solutions as part of their campaign promises with 64 percent of Democrat voters saying they prioritize the issue compared with just 34 percent of Independents and 12 percent of Republicans.

President Donald Trump has agreed to sign a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill that will help Americans still recovering from the flooding, hurricanes and wildfires that have devastated parts of the country in the past two years. Senate Republicans said they struck a deal with the president to approve the measure, despite the fact that it did not include the funding he wanted for the U.S.-Mexican border, CNN reported.

"The U.S. Senate has just approved a 19 Billion Dollar Disaster Relief Bill, with my total approval. Great!" the president tweeted Thursday.

"There was a lot of devastation throughout the state," Governor Mike Parson said at a Thursday morning press conference, as NPR reported. "We were very fortunate last night that we didn't have more injuries than what we had, and we didn't have more fatalities across the state. But three is too many."